Poets of the Fall & Flight Brigade – Rosenhof, Osnabrück; December 2nd, 2016
Poets of the Fall had never played in Osnabrück before and they did not get as big of an audience as they deserved, but they played one hell of a show nonetheless. I loved everything about this night, but especially the meet & greet, which turned out to be the best one ever (so far 😉 ). Sometimes all you need is a good idea. 😀 It was a great night and the perfect send off for E., who was leaving us the next morning. This day will surely live in my memory for years to come.
On the way to the train station I dropped by the copy shop to pick up the T-shirts we had ordered for the guys. I checked each one of them (they all looked good), paid and went on my way. On the train journey I folded each one up so the name was readable on the back and tied a pink ribbon around it. All of our shirts said “Child of the Fall” on the front, but the ones for the guys, based on Jani’s remark about “Applicant or something” all said “Child of the Fall Apprentice”. Our shirts have our names on the back with “Sisterhood of Children of the Fall” written below and a quote at the bottom. The shirts for the guys have “Property of the Sisterhood of Children of the Fall” at the bottom on the back and across their shoulders their names with a description below as follows: “Captain Keyboarder of the Fall”, “Jani Bassist of the Fall”, “Jari Drummer of the Fall”, “Jaska Guitarist of the Fall”, “Marko Singer of the Fall”, “Ollie Guitarist of the Fall” and last but not least “Nina Mommy of the Fall”. Sadly I didn’t think of taking any pictures of the individual shirts, but hopefully that can be arranged at some point.
Once in Osnabrück (the train was late of course), I met A., D. and E. at their hotel and we had some fun in their room with Christmas hairbands they had bought. They had wanted to get them for the guys, but the store only had five of them, so we had to wear them instead. D. got the Santa hat, E. and I had a Christmas tree and A. as well as G., who arrived soon, had reindeer antlers. Ready to go we went downstairs and met G. in the lobby. the venue was nearby and we were the first people there. A few of us stayed, others went for a bite to eat. We were still alone when we got back and once again held the door for Flight Brigade while they carried their equipment inside. A little while before the meet & greet someone came and told us the entrance was at the other door. We all wondered why we had even bothered asking when we arrived and were told to wait where we waited. Either way, there was no trouble and we all had the front row spots we wanted. Being a former movie theater the Rosenhof has a wide stage anyway.
It took a while for Nina to get the guys and Marko was the first one with us. He joked that the way was hard to find because backstage was upstairs. He liked our hairbands so I handed over mine, which he first put on his nose, then on his head, telling us he was having a bad hair day and this would mess up everything completely. 😀 It didn’t! All of us were wearing our ‘Child of the Fall’ shirts of course and after having our pictures taken with the guys we stuck together to hand over the shirts we had printed. Luckily there were not so many people at the meet & greet and we had time for our plan. Since Jani had the T-Shirt idea we had decided to give him his shirt last, just to mess with him. 😉 (Sorry!) Ollie and Jaska were the first people we talked to, having decided they would stick together through the whole meet & greet. They liked the shirts and we told them they’d have to put them on so we could take a picture. Jani was watching but did not get his yet. Nina was next and she totally freaked out with happiness – love at first sight! 😀 Since we could not get to the others right away I took pity on Jani and gave him his. Captain wanted to know how to get out of apprentice status and I told him we’d think about it. To Marko I said that he’d only get a shirt in exchange for a green “Delicious” T-Shirt and he told us they came about because his little nephew wanted a green shirt. It was such a cute story. <3 Jari got his shirt too and we told them again to put them on so we could take a picture. Captain put his over the other shirt he was wearing, Ollie modestly hid behind the backdrop while Marko changed right there commenting “I hope nobody takes pictures” – yeah, right! It was all funny. Sadly, Jaska’s shirt was a bit tight around the shoulders. Too much muscle! I apologized for misjudging the size. Finally we had all the guys and Nina in front of the backdrop, someone from the crew had the camera and we all joined them for a picture. 😀 This was the best part of the meet & greet, but everything else was great too. It is always lovely talking to the guys. 🙂
Eventually the doors opened and the venue filled up a little, but it still seemed somewhat empty. I had hope my former home would have a better turnout. Oh well, we’d just have to cheer louder. 😀
In Dortmund the previous day Flight Brigade had asked me if I’d be singing along to their songs by the end of the tour and I’d promised I’d try, but I hadn’t even had a chance to listen to their CD yet and picking up the words by just hearing the songs at the concerts proved a lot harder than I had imagined. Did my best though, at least singing along to the chorus (or pretending to so so ;)). I enjoy their music so much and they are such nice people I really want to support them in any way possible, so of course going along during their set is part of it.
With the large stage I had a good view of everyone in the band for a change, because nobody was hidden behind the others. They made good use of the space they had, playing together a lot and moving around more than they did at other gigs. It was clearly visible how much fun the band had and it was contagious too. Their energy grabbed us and took us along for the ride, rocking along with them as long as the set lasted. Time went by so quickly I could hardly believe it was over already when they left the stage.
Setlist:
House Fire
Where Eagles dare
U kill me
Tearaway
Our Friends Our Enemies
Hurricane Season
Thick as Thieves
After the wonderful meet and greet we all still had somewhat dorky smiles on our faces and could hardly wait for the show to begin. We felt like celebrating and I knew we’d make this show a big party. 🙂 Poets seemed to agree with that sentiment and rocked the house from the start. They, too, enjoyed the big stage and moved so much it was difficult to follow them at times. I sure tried to see everything though. 😉 Thanks to good lights I got some pretty nice pictures as well.
Right from the beginning Marko seemed to have decided to play to our group today. He visited us quite often that night. G. was the first one he sang to, putting his hand on her shoulder for a while. Her face was absolutely priceless. Later on he leaned on A., hugging her and during ‘The Game’ he sang to me. The look on my face was priceless as well (at least I laughed very hard at my “gig face” when E. showed me the pictures she took during that moment) 😉 – we sure had a lot of fun. Don’t fret though, it’s not like Marko stayed with us the entire night. As usually he was all over the place and on one of his journeys to the left side of the stage he received a heart made of glow sticks that he carried with him for a while. The guy who gave it to him looked very happy. 😀
The band was having so much fun and the fact that the place was not as packed as some of the other venues had been did not dampen their good mood. Jaska was standing in front of the keyboards early on, playing with Captain and watching the crowd. He returned to the same spot repeatedly. A few songs later he was replaced by Ollie, who used the keyboard raiser as a jump off point. Funnily enough, Captain was stretching his hand forward and then lifting it up so it looked as if he casted a spell to lift Ollie up. 🙂 Just like Jaska he was up there several times, guitar or arms raised to play for us or get us to clap along. Of course watching Captain is always fun, ever the cool magician behind the black and white keys. 🙂
Marko joked about going shopping and buying some stuff he would not tell us about but they were gonna have fun on the tourbus with at night, 😀 Oh please, don’t put any images into my head. 😉 He was constantly on the move, but did not restrict himself to to running across the stage, checking on the other guys or leaning out into the audience. He wanted to get closer and walked off stage, right into the crowd, going all the way to the back and singing from there. People made room for him wherever he went, happily enjoying the close-up view. 🙂
Jani tousled Ollie’s hair in passing, threw a kiss to Marko who caught it with his hand and moved around all the time. So much in fact, that towards the end of the show, Captain had to fan him with a towel to cool him down. 😉 Apparently Jani liked the fact that the distance between the drum raiser and the keyboard raiser was just right for him to stand with one foot on each and stood there all the time. Once, Marko casually strolled over and pretended he was gonna kick him in the balls. 😀
As gor Jari, he could not move away from the drum, but he was standing up quite a few times, watching the others and always laughing. Sometimes I wonder what he’d be up to if he could leave his seat back there. Join the shenanigans I suppose. 😀 It was a great show that left all of us smiling and happy. We even got to say goodbye to some of the guys afterwards because they were still walking around.
Chatted with Flight Brigade for a bit, then left and got us some drinks for a little hotel room after party. We had to, it was our last chance to party with E. this tour. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had a train to catch, so I hugged everyone and left a little after midnight. Until next time. 🙂
Setlist:
Intro: Shadow Play
Drama for Life
Daze
The Child in Me
Dreaming Wide Awake
Diamonds for Tears
The Game
Stay
Someone Special
Sleep
Running Out of Time
Once Upon a Playground Rainy
Locking Up the Sun
Carnival of Rust
Encore
War
Lift
Children of the Sun
Clearview tour 2016/17: 10 gigs down, 14 to go, next stop: Cologne